Timothy M. Buchanan

If you're in a position to influence a young person's life, these presentations will make the job easier and more effective.

Every program is available in person or virtually over Zoom.

Preparing the Hands, the Mind, and the Person

Personal development is the greatest multiplier of the technical skills you already teach. Today's students need technical, intellectual, and life skills to succeed, and it works best when it's a natural part of your daily teaching.

The questions Timothy's training and presentations are built to answer:

1
How do I communicate so I actually get through to my students?
2
How do I prepare them for the real world?
3
How do I replace poor behavior with healthy behavior?
4
How do I do all of this without adding a new activity, or losing regular teaching time?
Programs

Practical training for anyone shaping a young person's growth.

Every session below works as a standalone session, in person or over Zoom. Topics that belong to a series can be delivered individually or as a workshop.

Name It, Own It, Do It™

Helps kids learn to think clearly, choose wisely, and act with purpose.

A practical framework for teaching kids new behavior skills they can actually use. Name It, Own It, Do It walks a student through recognizing a behavior, owning it, and building a new one in its place.

NOW You're Communicating

Using need-driven communication for behavioral change.

A practical framework for approaching student behavior and compliance without becoming the villain, one that respects the student and builds real, lasting maturity. Teachers learn to recognize what a student actually needs in a moment of conflict, then choose the communication style that moves them forward instead of shutting them down.

Stories as Tools

For teachers who want to bring behavioral change into the classroom without turning every moment into a consequence. Stories as Tools shows how the right story, at the right moment, can open a conversation that a rule or a punishment never could.

Rewiring the Brain

Teachers already have real influence over a student's behavior and development. This session shows how to build the kind of relationship that helps a student form new neural pathways, using skills teachers already have, with less conflict and better outcomes in the classroom.

Building a Work Ethic That Sticks

(part of the "Building A Foundation For Life" series)

Helps students identify their core values and connect them to what a real workplace expects. Rather than a lecture on responsibility, this session gives students a working understanding of why work ethic matters, and how to build one that lasts.

Finding the Gap

(part of the "Building A Foundation For Life" series)

Every student has a specific gap standing between them and lasting employment, whether it is a skill, a habit, or a mindset. This session gives educators targeted strategies for identifying that gap and helping each student close it.

Beyond the Diploma

(part of the "Building A Foundation For Life" series)

A diploma answers what a student studied, not why it matters. This session facilitates purpose-discovery conversations that connect a student's own values to their career direction, so the path forward feels like theirs, not just an assignment.

The Critical Thinking Boost

(part of the "The Three Perspectives of Life and Work" series)

A practical model for teaching critical thinking that helps students build self-awareness, improve behavior, and strengthen academic performance. Grounded in neural plasticity and cognitive development, this session gives educators tools they can use right away.

Brains That Team Up

(part of the "The Three Perspectives of Life and Work" series)

Effective teamwork starts with clear thinking and intentional skill building. This session shows how critical thinking and neural plasticity work together to help students collaborate well, set healthy boundaries, and plan for what comes next.

Beyond the Classroom

(part of the "The Three Perspectives of Life and Work" series)

Helping students shape their future with purpose and clarity. This session shows how to apply critical thinking so students grow into thoughtful contributors, capable problem-solvers, and community-minded leaders long after they leave the classroom.

For Those Who Need an Actual Curriculum for Behavior
How to Use The Values Based Success Curriculum

A hands-on training for teachers who want to bring the Values Based Success curriculum into their own classroom. Built on the same Name It, Own It, Do It framework, this session walks educators through all twelve foundational values, so the work started in a keynote or workshop keeps going long after Tim leaves the building.

If you're looking for a values curriculum for your school, this one works. It scales naturally: use it with incoming freshmen, incoming middle schoolers, or roll it out for the whole school.

Values Based Success, Volume 1: Building Your Baseline, workbook cover
Sample page from the Responsibility section: the Name It, Own It, Do It framework
Sample: introducing a value
Sample worksheet page from the Responsibility section
Sample: reflection and goal-setting worksheet

When a trained mind and mature heart work together, great things happen.

Also a Trusted Voice at
Pennsylvania CTE NYCTE Colorado CTE CSAE
Timothy M. Buchanan, speaker and author
Who's Behind the Training

Timothy has spent his career in two very different rooms -- the boardroom and the classroom -- and found the same problem waiting in both.

He's taught and mentored graduate students navigating their careers, worked alongside CTE teachers and administrators, and coached executives through hard decisions -- and kept noticing the same gap everywhere: people with real technical skill who still couldn't connect, communicate, or believe in what they were capable of.

He has been a featured speaker at the Colorado CTE state convention, the closing speaker at the Pennsylvania State Conference, and trains every year for New York's Career and Technical Education Technical Assistance Center. Earlier in his career, he worked directly with Aubrey Daniels, author of the best-selling Performance Management: Changing Behavior That Drives Organizational Effectiveness, helping build a graduate level curriculum in performance management.

What makes his training actually land is the same skill that makes his fiction work: a gift for taking something complicated -- neural plasticity, communication theory, character development -- and making it simple enough for a teacher to use on Monday morning. He's also the author of the Apprentice Trilogy, coming-of-age fiction that puts these same principles into a story students want to finish.

He lives in Olin, Iowa, with his wife, and still finds his way into a classroom every chance he gets.

Also by Timothy M. Buchanan

The Apprentice Trilogy

Coming-of-age fiction for tweens and teens — the same story of mentorship and character these programs are built on, in novel form.

See the books →

Tell me one thing your teachers are up against right now.

Start a Conversation

One email. I read every one myself, and I'll write back.
303.517.0129  ·  timothy@timothymbuchanan.com